Ventforet Kofu

The ground in Kōfu has changed its name three times without moving a metre. It opened in 1985 as Kose Sports Park Stadium, took a bank's name in 2011 and an ink recycler's in 2021, and it holds 15,853.

The club that plays in it grew out of a school. Kofu Dai-ichi High School's old boys' association put a side together in 1965. The name came later, and it came from the ground beneath them: vent and forêt, wind and forest, two of the four words on Takeda Shingen's battle standards. Shingen ruled from Kōfu Castle.

The professional years began badly. Between 1999 and 2001 the club finished bottom of J2 three seasons running and went 25 matches without a win, and the press settled on a phrase for them — J2 no fuhō, the excess baggage of the division. That is the measure against which 2022 has to be read. Ventforet finished 18th in J2 that season and won the Emperor's Cup anyway, knocking out four J1 sides on the way, Kashima Antlers among them by a single goal. The final against Sanfrecce Hiroshima went to penalties at 1–1. Kohei Kawata saved one; Hideomi Yamamoto scored the one that decided it. No second-tier club had won the cup since 2011.

The task again is a promotion place, and the Chuo Expressway Derby with Matsumoto Yamaga to settle along the way.